Adapter



Dec. 11 1923. 1,476,982

T. J. KERWIN ADAPTER Filed July 16, 1921 7% 7 IHIIHIIHHIIH 2 Z i A i i. a". g6 u H m "16 lighting.

Patented Dec. 11, 1923.

PATENT OFFICE.

. UNITED STATES THOMAS J. KERWIN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO EDMUNDS & JONES COR- PORATION, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

ADAPTER.

Application filed July 16, 1921. Serial No. 485,350.

T 0 all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, THOMAS J. KERwIN, citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in an Adapter; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and, exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same. I

My invention relates to electric sockets, its general objects being those of providing a simple, inexpensive, easily manipulated and handsome adapter arranged for insertion in a socket of the standard screw type when the latter is to be employed in connection with an attachment plug or other electric fitting having a base of the Ediswan .ty e.

In automobile lighting practice it has become generally customary to employ sockets of the Ediswan type in which the lamp, plug or other fitting has its base equipped with lateral projections interlocking with bayonet slots on the casing of the socket, while in general lighting practice sockets of the Edison screw type are in common use. My invention aims to provide a compact and advantageously constructed adapter-socket for permitting devices designed for automobile lighting sockets to he used in connection with. the regular Edison base lighting sockets as employed in general Further and more detailed objects Wlll appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings, in which--- ig. 1 is an elevation of an adapter or adapter-socket embodying my invention.

Fi 2 is an enlarged central and longitudina section through the same.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary section taken through the lower portion of Fig. 2 along the correspondingly numbered line of the latter.

Fig. 4 is a bottom view of the same embodiment.

In accomplishing the purposes of my invention, I desirably employ a single insulator for supporting all of the metal parts of the socket and desirably equip this insulator with a collar which can conveniently be handled for screwing and unscrewing the adapter from a socket. Illustrative of a highly desirable construction, the drawings show the insulator 1 equipped intermediate of its ends with a knurled collar 2 and as having a forward cylindrical end portion 3 adapted to fit into a cylindrical casing 4 of the size commonly employed for the socket shells of automobile lamps. Between the collar 2 and the rear end of the insulator, the latter desirably has a groove 5 adapted to be entered by the upper end of a helically threaded screw shell 6 of the size commonly employed for one terminal of a standard incandescent lamp, so that the turning of the upper end of this screw shell into the groove 5 will prevent the screw shell from sliding oil the insulator, while a sliding in the other direction is prevented by the engagement of the bottom of the said screw shell with a shoulder 7 on the insulator. The central portion of the insulator extends rearwardly beyond the shoulder T to afford .a blunt end of contracted diameter, which end desirably is transversely grooved as shown in Figs. 1 and 3 so as to preventrotation of a metal contact bar 8 partly housed by the transverse recess.

Extending into the insulator 1 from the forward end thereof are a pair of bores spaced from each other and desirably parallel to each other, each of which bores desirably terminates somewhat short of the rear end of the insulator and slidably fits one of the two main conductors 13 and 14 of my adapter. Each of these conductors 13 and v14 is here shown as comprising a metal rod bored out at its forward end to afford a cylinder for housing both the head 9 of a plunger 10 and a spiral spring 11 arranged for continuously urging the plunger forward. so that each of the said rods together with its associated plunger forms an extensihleconducting member. The tips I of the plungcrs 10 are spaced from each other to correspond to the usual spacing in automobile lighting sockets and so located with respect to oppositely disposed bayonet slots 12 in the casing 4 at the forward end of the adapter, that the interlocking of a standard automobile lamp or plug with the said casing will cause the spring-pressed plungers to afford electrical connections between the terminals of such a lamp or plug and the conductors 13 and 14.. One of these conductors desirably has an extension 15 of contracted diameter extending through a corresponding bore in the rear end of the insulator and thro h a bore in the contact bar 8, so that the tip of this extension 15 can be staked over (as shown in Fig. 2) to anchor both the contact bar 8 and the conductor 13 in their operative positions. The companion conductor 14 is somewhat similarly connected to the screw collar 6 by a screw 16 extending through a transverse bore in the insulator The latter can therefor be anchored to the.

insulator by relatively slight indentations such as the prongs 17 It will also be evident that my adapter requires fewand relatively simple parts and that the use of the anchoring pin 16 together with the groove permits me to employ an insulator having a substantially cylindrical portion housed by the screw shell 6, thereby avoiding the necessity of having this portion of the insulator threaded to fitthe collar. Likewise, it will be noted that the extension 15 simultaneously affords the entire anchoring for both the conductor 14 and the contact bar-8, and that this extension forms the only fastening element required for holding the said contact bar.

However, while I have illustrated and described my invention in a highly desirable embodiment I do not wish tobe limited to the details of the construction and arrangement thus disclosed, it being obvious that the same might be modified in many ways without departingvfrom the spirit of my in- 'vention or from the appended claims.

I claim as my invention 1. An adapter comprising an insulator having'a pair of main bores extending longitudinally into the same from the forward end thereof and both terminating short of the rear end of the insulator. a continuation bore of smaller diameter leading from the bottom of one boreto the rear end of the insulator and a transverse bore leading from near the bottom of the other bore to the side of the insulator, a pair of extensible conducting members respectively socketed in the said main bores and projecting beyond the forward end of the insulator, a shell carried by the insulator and housing the projecting portions of the conducting members and having means thereon for interlocking with the base of a lamp, a screw shell housing a portion of the insulator near the rear end thereof, an end contact disposed on the rear end of the insulator, one of the said conductin members having an integral portion extending through the said extension bore and anchored to the axial contact member, and a conducting element disposed in the transverse bore and connecting the screw shell with the other conducting member.

2. An adapter comprising an insulator having a pair of main bores extending longitudinally into the same from the forward end thereof and both terminating short of the rear end of the insulator, and having a continuation bore of smaller diameter leading from the bottom of one bore to the rear end of the insulator and a transverse bore leading from near the bottom of the other bore to the side of the insulator, the insulator having a groove extending across its rear end, a pair of extensible conductin members respectively socketed in the sai main bores and pro ecting beyond the forward end of the insulator, a shell carried by the insulator and housing the projectin portions of. the conducting members an having means thereon for interlocking with the base of a lamp, a screw shell housing a portion of the insulator near the rear end thereof, a contact member socketed in the said groove on the rear end of the insulator, one of the conducting members having an integral extension projecting through the said extension and secured to the saidcontact member, the other conducting member having a transverse bore alining with the transverse bore in the insulator; and a conducting element disposed in the said transverse bore and connectin the last named conducting member with t e screw shell.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, July 12th, 1921.

THOMAS J. KERWIN. 

